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modDB.com Why Half Life? State your real name, job, place where you are from and age!
DD: My name is Dorian "DD" Gorski, I'm from Las Vegas and I'm 20. My job for HHD is mapping/sprites/textures/models, but not everything was done by me.
Why HL? Why not? I know a ton about the HL1 engine, with hl2 just months away (I hope), I figure this is good practice before HL2's release. Although the HL engine is old, with the right talent it can still look pretty good.
omega: Hello, I'm Tony "omega" Sergi, I was brought into this world in Ontario Canada 23 years ago. Real life job- none
D: HHD job- Programmer/Leader/Main idea guy.. whatever is needed that I can do, I've even made a couple of the models (the lower quality ones).
As for the "Why Half-Life" question, simple. Back when I first started modding HL in early 2000 (I didn't actually get HL until Christmas of '99, Quake2 consumed my life until June of 2000) one of my friends and I decided to mess around with the SDK, he made a bot based on Botmans Code, I made a Soda Launcher based on the RPG. The plan was to combine these two and make a mod called Household Death. Suffice it to say, it didn't happen, he didn't feel like modding HL anymore, and neither did I, so I went back to Quake2 until June of 2000 when HLSDK 2.0 was released. As soon as I saw all the cool features that SDK 2.0 allowed (client side effects, exposed player physics..) I was hooked and set forth to port the quake2 mod I was doing to HL. MMXQ2 -> MMXHL. (Mega Man X) So, MMXHL went on for a while, but we won't bother getting into that since it was a sad story in more ways than one. Anyway, a couple years passed, and earlier this year (around march or so) I set out to redo HHD from scratch. Within a week I had about 90% of everything you see right now (except maps, and some of the models) all complete thanks to Deimos who is also the lead modeler of FLFefiance, which I also lead now. HHD sat for a few months more, and then when DD showed me his "fy_shroom" map, I showed him HHD, and here we are now 4 months later from that point (where HHD again sat collecting dust) It wasn't until about a week and a half ago that we finally put everything together and put the finishing touches on 1.0 and released it.
modDB.com Household DEATH was thought up when? Is the mod like another game or mod in your opinion?
DD: I think this mod, like every other mod, is really not completely unique. There are tons of games out there. Making something completely original is pretty hard, but HHD does have its unique parts, like fighting only with household items. Visually you'll see it resembles many other games, especially hd_shroom.
omega: Well, I covered the majority of this in the "Why half-life" question, so I'll simply say "February 2000 is when it was originally conceived". I'll have to agree with DD on this one, I haven't really seen a unique game in years. I would be lying to you and myself if I said that HHD was original, its really not in a lot of ways, but its fun, and that's all that matters.
modDB.com How long have you been working on Household DEATH?
DD: Pretty much since it started, Omega needed some maps for HHD, and I had already began making hd_shroom, which at the time was called fy_shroom. I decided to convert it for hhd and really developed more into the map, with help from Omega. For example, he coded a feature so the warp pipes would play sounds at both ends, impossible with basic hl entities since hl has problems playing the sound wouldn't get send to the client from both ends during a teleport through PAS leafs.
omega: The version you see here, off and on since March; if you were to tally it all up, I'd honestly have to say probably only 2 weeks worth (if that) of my personal work has gone into it. With that said, if you know me; you know that I'm fast with what I do, and it (usually) turns out high quality. (Provided you ignore past projects like *cough* MMXHL *cough*, which may end up seeing a revival due to some new fans who discovered it on our main webpage in the Past Project section).
modDB.com Describe the best feature in the mod in your opinion? What should the person look for that they might miss?
DD: I really like the music (mp3) feature. We're able to use music for maps which really gives it that special last touch.
omega: I can't really choose one; I like everything about it so far, and am really pleased with how well it all turned out. While I'm writing this, I'm packaging up the 1.1 Update installer, and I guess I'll say, the best feature (in my own opinion just because I think its really cool) is the effect that comes from one of the v1.2 rune additions. (And no, I'm not spoiling it, because it'll be very memorable )
modDB.com Describe the weapons and what the weapon you will use the most and why?
DD: There are many weapons, and more to come, we've been talking about a chainsaw. All of the weapons are items you could pickup in almost any house, knives, forks, brooms, Lego grenades... ok maybe not that last one, but you get the idea. My favorite weapon is the soda launcher, its big, powerful, and gives a nice kick back, TFC RPG style.
omega: I personally go for the soda launcher or the knives as often as possible, a headshot with the knife is almost always a guaranteed kill if you can make the hit, and its immensely satisfying over long distances.
modDB.com How is the damage system in Household DEATH?
DD: I'm pretty sure it works the same way as standard HL, but new runes will be available that will mess with that a bit.
omega: Yeah, what DD said. The runes do change the dynamics a bit, For the better I hope!
modDB.com Gameplays in Household DEATH, explain them?
DD: Right now its just regular DM, but future modes are planed like slayer. In slayer one player is given lots of health and a chainsaw while everyone else tries to kill him, whoever does will become the next slayer.
omega: Another mode idea that I'd really like to do is called Zombie. I'm sure you can probably extrapolate the idea from "Zombie"
modDB.com I noticed the site has hardly any information. Are you working on it? I wanted to see pics and models and stuff.
DD: We have someone working on a more content filled websites. Pictures are coming for the skeptical press.
omega: this was intentional, we wanted to "surprise" people with the mod, instead of the traditional "show all kinds of pics for 3 months in advance, talk about how cool its going to be" yadda yadda, and just go with FIRST impressions. And I would have to say, so far it worked, and the impressions I've seen were at least 90% positive.
modDB.com Explain how the player classes will work?
DD: There are no classes currently.
omega: There will sort of be classes in the planned modes, but they're not selectable directly.
modDB.com What mods do you like in Half Life?
DD: I love the obvious. TFC, DOD, CS, but I have high hopes for less popular mods like HL Rally, Global Warfare, and Frontline Force: Defiance.
There is another small mod coming from Omega and I, O-Wing, you'll be hearing more about that shortly.
omega: All of which DD said except CS. I cannot stand it. I've tried every version since it came out at least twice, and I just want to fall
asleep on the keyboard. DOD on the other hand, I started playing when retail 1.0 came out, but I've stopped due to other interests (call of duty).
modDB.com Final thoughts:
DD: Thanks for taking the time to interview us, and just moddb, it's a great website for others to read about new and old interesting mods.
omega: Yeah, It was nice to be interviewed. I like being interviewed, it's fun, especially radio interviews. Mmm. Pie.
